The idea of reading Plato at an open turf fire on Achill, while listening to the Atlantic roar outside, might persuade any student to abandon the ivory towers of academe.
Such a treat was part of the normal routine last winter for Doreen O'Connor, an Irish dancing teacher from Saula, Achill. Last week she became the State's first arts graduate who studied for her degree at home.
She was awarded a first-class honours degree in English Literature and Philosophy at University College Galway, having successfully completed a three-year course on Achill under the National Distance Education Programme.
The NDEP started with a pilot course in computing in 1982, offered from the National Distance Education Centre in Dublin City University. More than 10,000 students have participated in its courses since then, which until recently were confined to computing and information technology.
The development of the Arts degree linked seven universities and third-level institutions, on both sides of the Border, in a unique collaborative effort. Not only did they work together to design a joint course, but they also agreed a joint-accreditation system where each institution confers the BA on its own distance education students. In effect, it creates an "all-Ireland faculty", according to the course co-ordinator, Ms Kay MacKeogh.
Ms O'Connor was 26 years old when she started the course. Her life was in turmoil following a personal tragedy. "I was living on an island out in the middle of nowhere and I really needed something to get me back on track," she says.
Going to university in the conventional manner was not an option. "My little boy was six at the time, and there was no way I would have left him to come to college full-time." Staying at home with her parents also made sense from a financial point of view, even though the path she took meant she missed out on the chance of a local authority grant.
"I was very lucky in that I was able to arrange classes as I wanted. That allowed me to study as well as run the dancing school. If I was in a full-time job I don't think I would have been able to manage."
The course was structured around a number of modules, which gave her the flexibility to follow it at her own pace. In the event, however, she completed the degree in the same length of time as an ordinary student - three years. "I decided to take four modules a year and get it over with as quickly as I could."
Unlike conventional lectures at university, where the diligent students scribble furiously as they try to take notes of what the lecturer is saying, Ms O'Connor was given the lecture notes already neatly typed out. "They were like self-learning notes - wonderful, very helpful," she says.
Each module included four written assignments and an exam at the end of the year, based on the prescribed texts which form the core of any literature or philosophy course. She travelled to UCG for regular tutorials, usually every second Saturday, where she met others from all over the west who were following the distance education programme.
In her foundation modules the other students comprised about 20 people from a broad range of occupations and age groups, from the mid-20s to the mid-70s. She says the elderly participants brought with them a wealth of life experience which was particularly valuable in discussions.
One of the key advantages of going to university is the opportunity to exchange ideas with fellow students. Despite the help afforded by the fortnightly tutorials, the relative absence of such opportunities is the biggest disadvantage of distance education, according to Ms O'Connor.
"It's very isolating to have to sit down and pluck all the ideas out of thin air yourself. If you are in a classroom situation, or even just with other people, you can bounce a few ideas around," she says.
Most of her work was done at home, alone. "I became a bit of an owl. I tended to stay up late and study into the night, because my little boy was at school and I was teaching dancing during the day. The house didn't settle down until everybody went to bed at night."
Coming up to exam time the pressures would mount up. "I would study very early in the morning, get up about six when the house was quiet, and study again at night up to maybe one or two o'clock.
"That was difficult - your social life went completely out the window. I'm sure people got really sick of me saying: `I have to study', and I kind of detached myself from various community works I had been involved in.
"Having said that, I have a lot of friends in Achill and they were marvellous. They rallied round and did bits and pieces for me to free up my time." The support of her parents and other members of her family was also a key factor. "I would never have been able to do it unless I was living at home. They completely took over looking after my little fellow, getting him to bed and everything, when I had an assignment due.
"My little fellow thought it was a great kick that I had to do tests and exams and all that, as well as him. You might be in the middle of Wilkie Collins and have to do a spelling test for him, ten Irish spellings in the middle of the bed. It was very different from going to college normally."